Indian healthcare industry is on a robust growth curve with tremendous scope for investments in new hospitals, expansion of existing facilities and installation of advanced equipment. These factors, according to experts will enable healthcare providers to serve the increasing patient population to access diagnosis and treatment at affordable costs.
According to some reports the current turnover of healthcare in the country is valued at $65 billion and registering 14 per cent growth. It is expected to be $85 billion by 2012 and to touch $150 billion in 2017. From dedicated pharmacies to medical colleges, it opens up greater investment avenues and competitive advantages with advanced technology, modern facilities and skill development in the Indian healthcare space. Factors driving growth are increase in patients, need for more beds, faster diagnosis leading to early treatment, awareness on preventive healthcare disorders, affordability, medical insurance and mandatory wellness checks by corporate houses.
“Globally healthcare is moving eastwards and India is on the centre stage,” said Vishal Bali, CEO, Fortis Hospital.
Medical tourism, which is expected to touch $2 billion in six years, is driving corporate hospitals and smaller nursing homes alike to upgrade themselves in a big way and meet the standards set by organizations like Joint Commission International (JCI).
Indian healthcare industry has come of age and the country is able to provide healthcare at affordable prices and has attracted patients from developed nations added Bali.
“The Indian healthcare story is just unfolding and the sector is bound to grow much more . Propelled by the drivers such as healthcare insurance, privatization, and government spending, this sector will be the next big growth area. Even while the reach and penetration of healthcare is increasing, quality and efficiency in the delivery system has to be beefed up said Gautam Khanna, Executive Director, 3M Healthcare, India.
The globally recognised Information Technology (IT) industry which has world class software development capability should look at the opportunities to increase the efficiency of Indian healthcare targeting hospitals of all sizes to provide innovative and affordable solutions ‘for India from India’, said Bali.
As hospitals are creating large networks , IT which is indispensable for connectivity can take healthcare altogether to a different level. Healthcare in the coming decade will ensure reduction of medical errors as IT will play a major role in decreasing medical slip-ups. Further, role of minimal access procedures will be the focus. The use of technology in healthcare ensures that the patients need to stay for a shorter period in hospitals.
According to Bali, patients’ expectations do play a major role in the clinical impression as well as efficiency in the hospital organization. The introduction of 3G technology will change the face of healthcare delivery and the huge wave of 3G licenses and its impact on healthcare will be exponential. The availability of 3G bandwidth will enable video broadcast and data-intensive services, telemedicine through wireless communications which will help accessibility of medical care to patients in far flung areas.
Enabling 3G will help implement electronic healthcare records and hospital information systems at a faster pace. This technology is set to substantially change the face of healthcare delivery, informed Bali.
While IT has enabled the industry to scale new levels of performance, private equity infusion has helped the healthcare sector to traverse across the country.
In the last five years, there had been a profusion of hospitals in the metros as well as in the burgeoning towns.
While Fortis is the largest healthcare provider in India with over 10,000 beds, Apollo Group with 6,400 beds and Manipal Health Systems with 4,000 beds are the country’s biggest medical centres.
In addition several, well known medical centres like Max Healthcare, Medanta-The Medicity Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital, Wockhardt, Yashoda Hospital, Nova Medical Centre, Narayana Hrudayalaya and Health City and Columbia Asia are some other names on healthcare landscape. A visible trend is the mushrooming of dedicated centres for orthopaedics, ophthalmology, oncology cardiology and nephrology.
In the Tier II and Tier III towns, the new medical centres have offered the patients access to faster and advanced care leading to early diagnosis and quick treatment modalities.
This where Vaatsalya Healthcare, a pioneer in semi-urban and rural healthcare in India and Healthcare Global Enterprises(HCG), a dedicated oncology care major have been to provide the much-needed relief to patients.
Vaatsalya Healthcare had raised funds to the tune of around Rs. 45 crore raised through equity and debt . It currently owns and operates 10 hospitals, of which eight are in Karnataka and two in Andhra Pradesh with a total bed strength of about 650. “We intend to expand this network to over 40 hospitals in the next three years and cover Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, said Ashwin Naik, Co-founder and CEO, Vaatsalya Healthcare.
In fact, Vaatsalya has been a pioneer in Tier II and Tier III healthcare network in India. “We also partner with local nursing homes and bring our expertise in managing the hospitals and growing them by adding new facilities and services. Our key focus is on financial sustainability and social impact. Now our focus is to scale it up to much larger geography,”said Dr. Naik.
HCG, which started operations two decades ago, now has a network of 18 cancer centres across South Asia. The hospital charted an inorganic route and has opted primarily for private equity fund infusions. So far HCG has received a total assistance of Rs. 183 crore. These are from IDFC (Rs 50 crore), Premji Invest (Rs 80 crore) and Evolvence India Life Sciences Fund (Rs 22 crore ) and Rs. 31. 20 crore investment from Milestone Religare in February 2010 .The current share -holding pattern for HCG is 60 per cent with the private equity and 40 per cent with the panel of doctors, said Dr BS Ajaikumar, chairman HCG who is the single largest share -holder.
While hospitals are the backbone of care, the diagnostic centres and novel medical consumables are critical components supporting the growth of the sector.
3M Healthcare India has a range of innovative solutions like wound care management and infection prevention and control apart from devices to speed up treatment. “Advanced wound care segment is not evolved in the country but is need of the hour as India is considered as the diabetes capital of the world. Infection control is a never ending fight against the invisible enemy. The opportunities in both the segments would continue to grow. Also an increased health consciousness among people, their rising health spends, hygiene and orthopedic syndromes will help in making patients aware of the need for infection prevention and control and use of appropriate wound care products which minimizes the chances of infection”, pointed out Khanna.
Diagnostic tests impact more than 70 per cent of healthcare diagnosis and decisions, the sensitivity and specificity of results obtained by these tests not only help in early diagnosis of diseases but also save time for patients as well as doctors.
Medall acquired the Chennai based diagnostic centre, Precision diagnostics, followed by Clumax Diagnostics in Bangalore. “Our endeavour is to build the brand value by investing on newer and credible scanners and equipment, Raju Venkatraman, MD & CEO Medall Healthcare Pvt. Ltd.
In a market which is still to be tapped, Medall is already looking optimistic in bringing home the best of technology for imaging and scanning. In addition to investing in technology we are also innovating in the field of tele-radiology, said Venkatraman.
Emerging trends
Visible trends in healthcare space are greenfield and brownfield hospitals coming up to offer multispecialty or super speciality care. In the diagnostic services focus is towards portable devices.
In the area of medical consumables, the trend is towards acceleration of wound healing and dressings which promote moist wound healing. Products that are more effective against microbes and yet can be used at lower concentrations and are safe both for human and the environment would be the order of the day. There is a clear desire from Indian professionals to move towards disposable products which offer the benefit of infection prevention in a cost -effective like the disposable drape packs for various surgical procedures being offered today, said Khanna.
Future challenges
For the healthcare space, the challenges in future would be to control cost of treatment, access to insurance and bring in more clarity to cashless treatment options apart from wooing doctors to work in far flung rural areas.
In the area of diagnostic service centres, there is a dearth of good healthcare and medical services in Tier 2 & Tier 3 towns. These areas are isolated in terms of medical infrastructure. Companies have already started setting up centres in small. Another challenge would be to create a pipeline of management resources, radiologists, sonologists to implement the plan of reaching out to this set, said Venkatraman.
There are also challenges before companies in the space of infection control and wound care. “The complexity of medicines has been acknowledged as one of the contributing factors of healthcare-acquired infections, in that a greater use of medical devices and interventions invariably results in potential complications and infections. It is the acceptance of these adverse patient outcomes that consternates patient safety experts who are endeavouring to change the mindset of clinicians while using simple tools and strategies proved to fight HAIs. Further, the awareness on the importance of infection control is a major challenge. Affordability is another key factor considering that only a small percentage of the population is medically insured and that the per capita spend on healthcare spend by the government and the general population is low compared to countries like China, Vietnam and Thailand, said Khanna.